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Network woes
First post here, but I’m ready for my beating. I’m sure it’s coming. So I work for a company that probably has about 200 working computer users. Now the video dept is only 4 editors. Using Premiere CC over our “network” has been just brutal. We all connect to a server that stores everything. Word docs, pictures, databases, etc. We’ve gone to IT and at first it was “Oh it’s a MAC issue”. Ok we switched to PC. Now it’s, here test this connection to the server with SSD drives instead of spinning. Or test this 10GB line and see if this works. Sure, it’s a little better but I’m sure it’s not the solution. Typical issues are horribly slow thumbnails in Media Browser. Sometimes causing Premiere to crash. Constant lag in timeline. Audio dropping out. Video stopping while playing timeline but audio still plays. You’ve heard all the stories. Yesterday I exported a project and it glitched when I was playing it back. So I re-exported. This time the VO was missing but the music was there. Third time a few graphics were missing. At that point I just walked out. Again when I go to IT with issues about their awesome Windows Server that 200 people are connected to, I get “Well there is plenty of bandwidth” or “Well the issue seems to be with the Adobe software and there is nothing we can do about that” So basically I’m here to get input as far as what can be purchased or implemented on our existing hardware to make this right. Or atleast maybe someone has reasons why this doesn’t work for Video Editing that I can go to IT with. Like maybe it MUST be iSCSI at least because that makes it block level and you can’t edit with file level and tons of other traffic. Stuff like that. Hit me with it all. Anything you can give me that will make sense to the guys who only know bandwidth and IOPS. Thanks
Mike
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4 Replies
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Hi Mike –
my response to you is the same response, and the same beating I give to everyone. A reply I have posted on this forum, and other forums on Creative Cow. If you had 10 employees, I would be googling your name, and trying to call you now. But you are not. You are in a big company with 200 computers, and an IT department, that “doesn’t want to hear it”.There are lots of people here, including me, that can solve this issue for you. Many of these people advertise on Creative Cow, and many have their own forums. But this is the problem. You have an IT department “that knows it all”. They don’t want me – they don’t want Brand X or Brand Y – they want to use THEIR servers, their drive arrays, their switches, and MOST IMPORTANT – their knowledge (certainly not me, or the other companies that can actually make this work for you). And until you can resolve this issue, you will never have a working system.
Here is what you have to do, to get things working. But of course, you won’t do this, because you do not want to lose your job. You need to go to your boss, or HIS boss, and say “look, these IT guys we have in this company are really great, but they just don’t understand how to make this stuff work. We need a dedicated server system for just 4 users, so it won’t cost a lot of money, but the staff IT crew probably should NOT be involved”. Of course, when Mr. Head IT hears this he will say “SCREW YOU” and screw Bob Zelin (and screw anyone else that is qualified) – because he don’t need no stinking outsider that thinks he knows everything, and can accomplish more than what he, and his team can accomplish.
And so you will not have a working system. Until you or your boss, or his boss, says “enough is enough”, and “lets call so and so from Creative Cow” and then you will have your answer. Of course, because I personally do this all the time (and so do SO MANY others on this forum, who know as much or more than I do) – this is what will happen next. Someone will eventually call me, or someone else that advertises here. And they will say “just a minute, let me get my IT guy on the phone with us” – and we will talk, and he will say “I can do everything this guy is talking about – we can get one of those new Dell Servers, and Cisco 10G switches with the backplane, and we can do the same thing”. And this is what will happen. He will budget for this, which will cost dramatically more than anyones turnkey system that you see here on Creative Cow (for 4 users). And it still won’t work. And then he will say “I knew that guy that I talked to was an idiot, and gave us wrong advice – it’s got to be that damn Adobe software that is causing all of these problems”.
I tell you this little story, because it’s a story that I see over and over and over again. Your IT crew can’t get it to work. And guys like me (or the other vendors on Cow that know how to make this work) are not going to tell him all the little details for free, just so that he can be the big hero in your company “see, I got that video stuff working !!!”.
Your only chance is to reach out to one of the companies or individuals that you see on Cow, on these forums, and ASK THEM – not your IT crew – for help. Hey, your IT team can simply BUY a turnkey system from one of these companies, and install it as a dedicated system, and it won’t cost that much. But in reality, it’s not that complicated – and you can do this yourself, so can any of the 4 people on your team. There is no need to talk about IOPS and bandwidth. You just say “lets give these people some money, and we can have a working system”.
Will this happen – from my experience, probably not. Because you would have made some calls already to the banner ads that you see advertising right in front of you, right this second.
bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
That’s actually the most succinct, beating-free summary of the situation that I’ve ever seen. Very nice!
And Mike, and others, that’s the heart of it. The boss hears words like “drives,” “storage,” “network,” and says, “Let’s call IT!” But it’s not an IT problem, and IT can’t solve it.
Not that an individual IT TEAM can’t solve it. As Bob notes, it’s very simple. But it’s not an IT-specific problem, and IT-specific approaches will invariably lead to wrong choices for every component.
Even before discussing which product is the right one for you — and as Bob notes, the answer could well be “any company on this page: pick one” — the problem to solve is, can you keep the IT guys away while you assess the product that will support your CREATIVE needs, and just have IT integrate your solution into the rest of the company infrastructure.
Bob has a baseball bat packed in a bag next to the front door, ready to fly to your aid at a moment’s notice to “persuade” anyone at your company that needs “persuading.” Just let him know.
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ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?! That was THE best answer EVER. It’s exactly the fuel I need to show that I’m not the only one who thinks this way. And I did go to my boss (who more or less agrees with me but doesn’t have the technical knowledge to understand why) with your exact answer and his reply was “Well that F’ing sucks!!!” Not, “Hey this guy is just talking out his ass” or anything like that. So I thank you and everyone else on here for the brutal honesty cause in my eyes it’s quite appreciated. Now I can get this ball rolling.
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Bravo!
How someone can even say they can do something,especially IT people, when they have never done before is beyond me.
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